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Monday, October 4, 2010

Quotes: Finding Expression Through Others

I love when someone writes or says something poignant that resonates with me, that makes me think of or see life in a new way, or that fills me with a sense of awe and peace. I love when an emotion or insight that I had been unable to express myself is so perfectly articulated for me through the words of others. Whenever I am struck by a person's thoughts or writings, I scribble them down, or type and print them out to place in a special journal I've kept throughout the years. Or rather, in one of what has now become several journals.

I started collecting quotes long before I fell sick, and continued for many years thereafter. For the most part, however, I am now too ill. It simply takes too much energy. As I've mentioned before, I can only listen to books on audio, so I therefore have to transcribe what I hear in order to jot anything down. This can often be a bit painstaking, especially if the quote is long.

I do still have quite a few quotes saved on my laptop though, and I thought I'd share a few of those with you today. They are not necessarily my favorites -- just ones I had readily available. As you will see, most of the quotes I collect are ones that I can relate to in terms of illness, struggle, one's inner spirit, and finding the beauty of life despite suffering. I hope some of them resonate with you as well.

Once again, this will likely be my last post for some time, unless there is any breaking news to comment on. My health has not been its best, to say the least, and this month will be one that requires all my energy and focus. I hope to be back fairly soon however, and wish everyone a happy fall season.

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You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
— Maya Angelou

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You are the knowing, and not the condition that is known.
-- Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle

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Really, no matter how frightened and discouraged I may become about the future, I look forward to it. In spite of everything I see all around me everyday, I have a shaky assurance that everything will turn out fine. I don't think I'm the only one. Why else would the phrase "everything's all right" ease a deep and troubled place in so many of us? We just don't know. We never know so much, yet we have such faith. We hold our hands over our hurts and lean forward, full of yearning and forgiveness. It is how we keep on, this kind of faith.--Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg

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Everything is holding its breath inside me. Everything is waiting to explode like Christmas. I want to be all new and shiny. Not this way, every evening talking to the trees, leaning out my window, imagining what I can't see.--The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

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Something in me did not want to give up on life, was unwilling to let go, wanted to fight to the very end. Where that part of me got the heart, I don't know.

Some of us give up on life with only a resigned sigh. Others fight a little, then lose hope. Still others, and I am one of those, never give up. We fight, and fight and fight. We fight no matter the cost of battle, the losses we take, the improbability of success. We fight to the very end. It's not a question of courage. It's something constitutional, an inability to let go. It may be nothing more than life-hungry stupidity.

With the every first rays of [morning] light, it came alive in me: hope. As things emerged in outline and filled in color, hope increased until it was like a song in my heart. Oh, what it was to bask in it. Things would work out yet. The worst was over. I had survived the night. Today, I would be rescued. To think that, to string those words together in my mind, was itself a source of hope. Hope fed on hope.
-- Life of Pi by Yann Martel

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Life, even at it's simplest level, occurs apparently just for its own sake. It is easy to overlook this thought, that life just is. As humans, we are inclined to think that life must have a point. We have plans and aspirations and desires. We want to take constant advantage of all the intoxicating existence we've been endowed with. But what's life to a lichen? Yet it's impulse to exist to be is every bit as strong as ours -- arguably even stronger. If I were told I would have to spend decades being a furry growth on a rock in the woods, I believe I would lose the will to go on. Lichens don't. Like virtually all living things, they will suffer any hardship, endure any insult, for a moment's additional existence. Life, in short, just wants to be.
--A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

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Be careful reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
--Mark Twain

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I wish so much that you could get hold of the idea of what perfection in this world consists of. It is not like going up a great hill from which we see an ever widening landscape, a greater horizon, a plain receding farther and farther into the distance. It is more like an overgrown path that we cannot find. We grope about, we are caught by brambles, we lose all sense of the distance covered. We do not know if we are going around and around, or if we are advancing. We are certain only of one thing: that we desire to go on, even though we are worn and tired. That is your life, and you should rejoice greatly because of it. For it is a true life, serious and real, on which God's eyes and heart are open.
--Abbey de Trouville

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People go forth to wonder at the height of mountains, the huge waves of the seas, the broad flow of rivers, the extent of the ocean, the course of the stars -- and forget to wonder at themselves.
--St. Augustine

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For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed.
--Attributed to Audrey Hepburn

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Words fail me sometimes. I have read most every one in the Webster's International Dictionary of the English Language, but still have trouble making them come when I want them to. Right now, I want a word that describes the feeling you get -- a cold, sick feeling deep down inside -- when you know something is happening that will change you, and you don't want it to, but you can't stop it. And you know for the first time, for the very first time, that there will now be a before, and an after. A was, and a will be. And you will never again be quite the same person you were. What is the word for that feeling? For knowledge and fear and loss all mixed together?
-- A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
(this made me think of the moment I first got sick, as well as some of my more serious health setbacks)

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Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
—Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

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Beyond there is light and music and sweet companionship, but I may not enter. Fate -- silent, pitiless -- bars the way. Fain would I question his imperious decree, for my heart is still undisciplined and passionate; but, my tongue will not utter the bitter, futile words that rise to my lips, and they fall back into my heart like unshed tears. Silence sits immense upon my soul. Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, ‘There is joy in self-forgetfulness.’ So I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others’ ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness.
--The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

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You are as prone to love as the sun is to shine.
--Thomas Traherne

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Perhaps the worth of any lifetime is measured more in kindness than in competency.
--Rachel Naomi Remen

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Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says "I'll try again tomorrow. "
— Mary Anne Radmacher

I keep a quotation journal as well, although most of the contributions are from high school and college. I actually used some in my senior thesis- makes me wonder where it has gotten to in our mess of unpacked boxes. Thank you for sharing!

Take the time you need to rest- I hope things begin to ease for you soon. *hugs*

I like these quotes. I'm glad I got to read them. I like to save quotes too, but of course it takes a lot of energy. Sometimes when I'm reading I keep thinking it's a shame I can't copy all this down, but if I stopped to try I'd never get any reading done. And I do mostly audio books now too.

Hey laurelThxs for the post when I know u need all ur energy! I also keep journals full of quotes & things I enjoy. When I'm feeling low I like to dip in and out of these & find some strength in words of wisdom. I laughed out loud at the quote from Mark twain & loved the Audrey Hepburn one. Thanks for sharing laurel & I wish you a good month. Xxxx

These are wonderful, Laurel! Lots that I hadn't heard before and even some from books I read that I didn't catch myself.

I keep a quote journal, too. When I hear some I really love on audio, I request the print book from the library just so I can write down the quotes! I often feature a quote on Saturdays on my blog. Here are some of the past ones:

Wow, these are great. Thanks for sharing them. I hope you are able to rest well and do some healing this season. Have you ever read any Mary Oliver. I just got a book of her poetry...inspiring.....I wonder if you could get any of her poetry books on tape?

Hi Laurel, I have also really enjoyed this post. I think the Maya Angelou one is spot on. Yann Martel and Bill Bryson also strike a chord, especially "life-hungry stupidity" rather than courage! Indeed, it feels like that sometimes. And the lichen! I love lichen!